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Topic: Aussie Removal Stories (Read 30832 times)

Yes i am charging and re investing the money in boxes. But i also breed a few ducks and have kids and stuff so having time to build everything is a bit of a struggle right now. :shock:

I can buy them built i guess, but then thats cost more...so the smallest and newest i will combine. How much you want for 3 or 4 ply nucs?

Mate, certainly sounds busy... i know what you mean though! it's not cheap and time - well there is never enough of that!

Yeah, i wouldn't buy them built! way too expensive! $35 i think i have seen them for and that's flatpack! I can make some up for you - don't know about price - can't imagine they'd be super expensive - let me do some number crunching

I got to try out the bee vac again on an annoying swarm that had set up shop in a tiny little alcove under a house. After the first go with the vac (50% fatalities) I added a bit of wrapping foam opposite the entrance. From what I could see, there were no fatalities this time!

Phil did you get some bees in Brighton from a nature strip today? Had 3 or 4 calls in the last few days around Cheltham and Brighton and told them to call you :)

My own bees swarmed and flew across the yard before our eyes (and video camera) and landed on a tree in a secure yard around the corner...let me hive with a frame of honey in it to try and lure them, but today the swarm was gone and so was half my honey :(

Oh yes I got the calls today. :roll: I'm going to take my name off the swarm collection list for a couple of weeks while I consolidate my boxes. I've got more bees at the moment than I can puff a smoker at!

I have 5 hives at home at the moment (Shhhhh! don't tell my neighbour) and a couple of nucs up with Dan's. I'm collecting one of the ones in Brighton in the morning. The one on the footpath I let go through to the keeper. I haven't had oportunity to get back to the Cheltenham one yet. It's interesting as to where to the calls come from. I reckon I could plot the swarms on a map and have a rough idea where the source hive is as there seems to be some hot spots.

Do you think this type of tree is popular with bees, or do they like going to the same place others have been, or just a big coincidence, some problem with the matrix?

Appreciate any thoughts.

Slicko seems to do well with his macadamia and mandarin trees, don't you Slicko? By all reports they're magical.

Working on a swarm at the moment that has settled under the corner of a house. I tried reaching in with hand and bee brush and transferring them to a nuc, but obviously missed the queen as they all just went straight back again. The nuc is still sitting there virtually empty so I've tried a little lemon grass oil to see if I can make them want to be in the box.

They were popular last year but this year zip. The 4 swarms that I've had, 2 landed in one of the natives too high to get, one in a Buckinghamia 1 in my Longan tree. On combining swarms I have had to do that this year. After the success that I had with combining queenright swarms before I went overseas, I just did the same last week with 2 queenright swarms and the hive is now going bonkers. The only problem is that you dont know which queen has survived. Perhaps my assumption that the stronger queen will be the survivor is close to the mark

Mick (sorry to go off topic here) You grow longans? Do the bees work them? I have (the related) lychee and rambutan growing and just started longan last year. I'm hoping the bees will like them as much as I do!

Can you grow carombola (star fruit) there as well?

Scott

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G'day Hardwood, yes I have a longan tree and a couple of lychee trees also. Dont see much bee activity on the longan tree. The tree is not a good bearer and the fruit is quite small.. the flesh just covering the seed while the lychees have a good crop each year. Unfortunately the fruit bats get to them and will strip a tree of all its fruit overnight. They dont touch the longan

On topic, I just had a look at the swarms I combined last week. The half height super of foundationless frames I gave them are now mostly built out. Some are capped at about 80% and some have a small number of drone cells.Slicko

Today i noticed a swarm of bees neatly on my fence. I grabbed the suit, grabbed a hive and a brush and started trying to get them into the hive. Its just starting to get dark.

I really felt lik ei had a lot bees going at face, usually you have 1 or 2, but i have 10 or 12. I stopped to check out what was happening and realised i had bees inside the suit right in front my face, all buzzing angrily.

As i threw my gear in the air and ran across the yard yelling and taking of my gloves i gripped the suit where the most of them were and help onto them and whipped off the suit. I managed to clear it of bees and figured i hadnt done up the zipper properly got my self together and got back to getting this swarm organised before dark.

Within 2 min i had another 10 bees inside the suit. Repeated same procedure of running and undressing at the same time (i know it would easier not to panic, but its my instinct :) ) this time i get my wife to check out my suit and she sees a 100mm (4inch) tear in the mesh next to my face...

TIP. Full suit inspection before each bee task. Certainly after every time i find bees inside the suit. Not a single sting after having a good 20+ bees in the suit even considering my carrying on...

I brush them off into a nuc lid or dustpan and empty them into the box. Once the queen is in the box the others will follow. Sometimes it's taken a couple of goes over 1/2 hour to make sure I have the queen.

I did a great wall cut out today...took 3 hours and was truly a beautiful hive. Wife and i pulled it carefully apart and easily filled 8 frames with brood and honey comb. This was certainly very fun and pretty simple in the end.

Best of all the people, who were really nice, were convinced to adopt the bees and bought the hive box from me and will house it in their yard and learn beekeeping. Saved the bees and introduced some people to bees, really feels like you are doing good things sometimes :)